David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Edwards for his interest in this very tragic and mysterious matter. As everyone will be aware, some 239 people were aboard Boeing 777 MH 370 when it disappeared on 8 March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Australia has led the biggest search operation in history, but is yet to find any evidence of the missing flight MH 370. Tragically for the families of those on board, the search for that aircraft remains unresolved. On 28 April the Prime Minister announced that the search for missing MH 370 would move to a new intensified underwater phase. This phase will involve an intensified underwater search with side-scan sonar equipment towed behind ships. All the available data indicates the aircraft went down in a long but narrow arc of the Indian Ocean, measuring 700 kilometres by 80 kilometres, some 2000 kilometres to the west of the coast of Western Australia in water of a depth of up to 7000 metres.

I wish to inform the Senate that this new phase of the search commenced with the review and analysis of all data and information relating to the likely flight path of this aircraft together with information acquired in the course of the search to date. This work will advise on the most probable areas for an effective future search to continue. The comparison most commonly drawn in the search for MH 370 is the missing A 330 that crashed in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean, but the debris field for that aircraft was found within the first two days. I remind the Senate that at this point in time we have not found one single piece of debris that is relevant to the missing aircraft. With joint cooperation, over 4.6 million square kilometres of ocean have been searched; 345 search sorties have been conducted by military aircraft for a total of over 2998 hours. Over 30 per cent of the military flights were made by the Royal Australian Air Force, based out of Pearce in Perth. Up to 19 ships have been used to cover the search areas during this period. As we enter the new phase— (Time expired)